Syracuse University pulls students from Egypt; in Syracuse, another student worries for her family, homeland

View full sizeGary Walts / The Post-StandardSyracuse University student Salma El Daly, pictured in her apartment in the city, is from Egypt. Like her parents, El Daly wants Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak out of power.

Syracuse, NY -- Instead of writing home about the Egyptian pyramids, Syracuse University student Jordan LaPlante wrote about a revolution.

“If you’re watching the news, we are all safe so far,” LaPlante wrote in an e-mail to his godmother Janice McKenna Jan. 25. “There were a lot of police and one bridge had 150 police with riot shields, canines and tear gas guns. Although we heard rumors of a revolution, we didn’t think much went down.”

LaPlante, 20, is one of four SU students studying in Egypt this semester. Last weekend the university asked the students to leave, because of anti-government protests that have gripped the country, said Jon Booth, deputy director of SU’s Division of International Programs Abroad. LaPlante, of Syracuse, landed in Istanbul, Turkey, at about 6 p.m. Monday (Syracuse time).

“We were all pretty disappointed,” said LaPlante, who was studying on the island of Zamalek, near Cairo. “It’s alright and all because we had a couple of sketchy moments. We relied on the police for our security, and there was a night where we had no security at our college and there (were) looters going around.”

View full sizeProvided photoJordan LaPlante

While LaPlante traveled to a hotel in Istanbul, Turkey, Monday night, Egyptian student Salma El Daly was in Syracuse deciding whether she should go home and search for five friends who are missing.

“We don’t even know if they are dead or in the hospital or injured or taken by the regime,” said El Daly, who is a graduate student in the television, radio and film program at SU. “My friends, when I call them, they are like ‘consider us dead, but just don’t stop because we are dead.’”

El Daly, 30, has kept in irregular contact with her parents in Suez, Egypt, via cell phone. Like her parents, El Daly wants Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak out of power.

“I believe that he should be in front of court,” El Daly said. “Someone has to pay for all these people who have gotten killed. Someone has to take responsibility for this. And since he has taken responsibility for the whole country for 30 years, since I was born, then he should take responsibility now.”

Syracuse University relocated LaPlante and two other students to Bahcesehir University in Istanbul, where they will continue their studies, Booth said. This is the first time in the last 16 years that students have been forced to leave a country because of violence, he said.

“We feel that the situation in Egypt is very uncertain,” Booth said. “We don’t feel it’s safe for students to be there now. We want things to be settled out in terms of the leadership of the country and other issues.”

El Daly agrees with the efforts of SU and the United States to fly citizens out of the country. This is Egypt’s problem, she said. “As much I want to fly back home, I care that these people are also safe and want to fly out. It’s our issue, it’s our revolution. We can die for our revolution,” El Daly said.